cacos

▪ Haitian and Central American political group

      the name given to Haitian rebels and to an early political group in Central America.

      In 1920, during the American occupation of Haiti (1915–34), U.S. marines put down an insurrection by the cacos, peasant guerrillas from the north who were resisting forced labour and the expropriation of their lands; more than 2,000 Haitian lives were lost, and about 100 U.S. marines and Haitian gendarmes were killed in the conflict.

      In Central America, immediately before independence was declared in 1821, one of the two leading political factions was also called cacos. Their leaders were such prominent Creoles as José Matías Delgado and Pedro Molina, liberals who demanded independence under a federalist, anticlerical constitution. They were opposed by the more conservative gazistas, led by José Cecilio del Valle, who insisted upon protection for private property and gradual change but also advocated safeguarding political liberties. Rivalry over political power, however, as well as conflicting ideologies, was the cause of this factionalism.

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